Growing Up Grimaldi

The Grimaldis are one of Europe's oldest dynasties, little princlets of Monaco. Recently, though, this wealthy microstate (much smaller than the new nation of Montenegro) has fallen somewhat on hard times. When Prince Ranier died, his son Albert took the throne. Albert has never married, and thus has no legitimate heirs. However, he now has to add another illegitimate child to the list (his second confirmed one to date), a 14 year old Palm Springs girl (I've seen her birth certificate, but there is no point in naming her) who is the daughter of a former waitress who conceived the regal love-child while on vacation in Monaco. The mother of Albert's first recognized heir is a Togolese (that is, inhabitant of Togo, a slender West African nation next to Ghana) flight attendant.

It seems that Mr. Grimaldi has rather unusual state for his baby mamas (and I use this in the technical sense). Here he is, a multi-millionare, among the wealthiest rulers on the face of the earth, and yet his children do not come from a wife (he is unmarried), nor even mistresses, but rather flings. At least one admirable thing may be said about him--he is rather egalitarian in his tastes of women (he even apparently shows no racial prejudices, in that at least one of his children is bi-racial). At least these positive things may be said about him, because although he appears to have no problem fathering children, he does have difficulty (from all appearances) in finding the right kind of woman to settle down with.

There are apparently not that many classy and eligible ladies who would wish to marry a prince these days, I assume. His mother was Grace Kelly, an actress to be sure, but a classy and elegant one. Even beyond marriage, though, it appears that Prince Albert has a hard time finding someone worth dating or courting. I'm sure he could take the advice the rather fluffy rom-com (that is, romantic comedy) "The Prince and Me" and find a nice college girl to date. After all, his eldest child will, in the next few years, be looking at college, and will be flagrantly inelegible for financial aid now that she is the recognized daughter of the Prince of Monaco. So, while the Prince (we presume, or his handlers) is looking around at nice colleges for his firstborn daughter, perhaps he could find a classy lady for himself. After all, in this day and age, bastardy can get rather expensive.

I do feel bad for the young lady, though. She has all sorts of reporters and investigators around her school. Hopefully she can receive some sort of renumeration for what is likely to be a lot of unfriendly attention. As for the Prince, let us hope that his wild days are over. Child support is expensive, especialy when you're worth hundreds of millions of dollars. One hopes that, even if belatedly, Albert will prove to be a good father. He certainly looks to have some practice to come in the near future in that regard.